BHUBANESWAR  MONDAY  JANUARY 20, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION AXELSEN, AN SE-YOUNG CRUISE TO EASY TITLE WINS AT INDIA OPEN Double Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen secures third India Open title as Olympic & world champion An dominated right from word go VIKTOR AXELSEN AN SE-YOUNG GREAT DANE ERASES MALAYSIA HEARTBREAK DOUBLES DELIGHT FOR JAPANESE, CHINESE PAIRS Viktor Axelsen erased the disappointment of falling in the opening round of Malaysian Open super 1000 last week to the same opponent. For An, it was an effortless 21-12 21-9 win over P Chochuwong. Malaysian duo of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin, who ended India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty’s run in semis pocketed the doubles title ■ ■ In the women’s doubles final, Japan’s Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto beat Kim Hye Jeong and Kong Hee-Yong of South Korea 21-15, 21-13 In mixed, China’s Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin prevailed 21-18 21-17 over Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue | P11 3rd AXELSEN WINS INDIA OPEN FOR RECORD THIRD TIME CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI PEACE DAWNS ON GAZA AFTER 15 MONTHS OF WAR Hamas releases three hostages; hardliner national security minister Ben-Gvir quits Netanyahu’s govt AGENCIES Now, cops file flesh trade case against Hansita and her partner A S I S H M E H TA @ Bhubaneswar TROUBLE seems to be mounting for conwoman Hansita Abhilipsa as city police registered another case against her, this time under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act for allegedly pushing women into flesh trade to receive favours from businessmen. Commissionerate Police’s special crime unit (SCU), which is investigating the cheating case against Hansita and her partner Anil Mohanty, reportedly recovered about 10 objectionable photographs of three different women from her seized mobile phone. Police claimed Hansita sent the photographs to one person to receive favours in finances and business deals. Police also recovered some of her WhatsApp chats in which she was found to be negotiating the charges to engage the victims into prostitution. Police, however, has not named the person who solicited the escor t service. Sources said police came across financial transactions between Hansita and the person who availed the illegal services. As SCU is focusing mainly on the cheating allegations against Hansita and Anil, Infocity police will look into the fresh accusations of human trafficking against the duo. Police are trying to ascertain the identities and place of residence of the women whose objectionable photographs were found in the accused’s mobile phone. The possibility of the victims being natives of some other state has not been ruled out, said sources. “A case was re gistered against Hansita and Anil under section 120(B) of IPC, section 5 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and section 67 of Information Technology Act. The investigation into the matter is continuing,” said Infocity IIC, Mahendra Sahu. Earlier in the week, Infocity police had registered a case against Hansita for allegedly obtaining a passport by changing her name from Bishnupriya Chand to Hansita Abhilipsa through a gazette notification. PROTESTS AND CELEBRATIONS IN WASHINGTON Ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, thousands took to the streets in Washington to rally against his policies | P9 MAJOR FIRE AT KUMBH MELA NO CASUALTIES REPORTED  A major fire broke out at the Kumbh Mela site in Prayagraj on Sunday after a suspected leak from an LPG cylinder caused an explosion  The fire is believed to have started at Geeta press tent in Sector 19 around 4 pm  The blaze quickly spread and engulfed around 40 tents  15 fire tenders were pressed into action and the blaze was brought under control within an hour | P8 Suspected Bangladeshi national held in Saif Ali Khan attack case S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai MUMBAI police on Sunday arrested Shariful Islam Shehzad, a suspected Bangladeshi national, in connection with the attack on actor Saif Ali Khan. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him in police custody for five days. Shehzad, 30, was arrested from Thane’s Labour Camp area, where he used to work as a housekeeper in a bar. “Prima-facie, the accused is a Bangladeshi and he changed his name to Vijay Das after entering India illegally He came . to Mumbai some 5-6 months ago. The accused used to work in a housekeeping agency said ,” Dixit Gedam, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 9. While seeking 14 days police custody in court, the prosecution said the police was looking to probe if there was an “international conspiracy” behind the attack. It submitted 15 reasons for seeking 14 days custo- dy, including how the accused entered India and who helped him. However, the court gave only five days custody . However, defence lawyer Sandeep Sherkhane said the police made the arrest without proper investigation and that his client was residing in India for several years with family “First . of all, Saif Ali Khan has never made any statement or does not have any grievance with anyone that would create a threat for him from Bangladesh or any other country He does not . have any international cases. They (police) changed the angle of the case just because the accused is Bangladeshi,” he said. Dinesh Prajapati, another defence advocate, said the police did not produce any document to prove the accused is a Bangladeshi national. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh police said a suspect who was detained at Durg railway station on Saturday was released on Sunday morning. Shariful Islam Shehzad Bangladesh connection Police say Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla from Bangladesh entered India illegally. He also changed his name to Vijay Das. He used to work for a housekeeping agency but became unemployed recently THE much-awaited ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took effect on Sunday following an almost three-hour delay after Hamas was late to name the three hostages it plans to release first. The truce, which started at 11.15 am local time (2.15pm IST), is the first step toward ending the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and returning the hostages abducted in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack. An Israeli official confirmed that Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were released by Hamas in the evening. Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival, while the other two were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Damari is an Israeli-British dual citizen. Hamas was supposed to provide the three names before the start of the ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the militants had not lived up to their commitment. Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons,” and said it is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced last week. In the interim between 8.30 am and when the ceasefire took hold on Sunday , Israeli fire killed at least 26 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry . Displaced Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by Israeli offensive in Rafah, as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Sunday | AFP Israel’s hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, said his Otzma Yehudit party was quitting the government in protest over the ceasefire agreement. Ben-Gvir’s departure weakens Netanyahu’s coalition but will not affect the truce. The ceasefire deal was announced last week after a year of intensive mediation by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt.The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire should see a total of 33 hostages return from Gaza and the remaining Palestinian prisoners and detainees released. Negotiations on the far more difficult second phase of this ceasefire should begin in just over two P9 weeks. B’luru techie gets free phone, loses `2.8 crore E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ B’luru AFTER the ‘dubious parcel at Customs’ scam and ‘digital arrest’ scare, cyber fraudsters have come up with a new trick to gobble up your money: give a free mobile phone, and use it to siphon off money from your bank account. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) Shivakumar Gunare said this n ew m o d e o f crime was reported in Bengaluru where a techie lost `2.8 crore. A fraudster posing as a bank representative told the man that a bank had approved a credit card for him, and due to his good credit score, he was eligible to get a free mobile phone. Unknown to him, the phone had pre-installed cloning software, configured in such a way that no messages from the bank, including OTPs, would be received on it. Instead, it would be redirected to the fraudster’s device. A week after he inserted a SIM card into the device, he found `2.8 crore was debited from his FD account. Upon enquiring at the bank, he learned that the money had been siphoned off by fraudsters.